1963 Edmund Scientfic Space Conqueror

I just bought a new scope, well, not really new, new for me. The telescope is actually almost as old as I am. It is an Edmund Scientific 6" reflector, the Space Conqueror, as it was called in the catalogs back then. (This scan is from a 1968 catalog.)

I'm pretty sure it is from 1963, I have a typed sheet showing the elongations of Mercury and Venus, as well as the oppositions of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The December 18, 1963 elongation of Mercury is the oldest date on the list.

Now let that last paragraph sink in for a bit. I said "I have a typed sheet." When was the last time you used a typewriter? I can just see the original owner at the library, copying the data from an ephemeris, and then typing them up at home. It is hard to remember a time when information was so precious, so hard to come by. You're reading this on a blog, or reprinted in a newletter which will probably be delivered by email. Yet L. M. Kazarian of Providence, Rhode Island, had to get himself to an ephemeris and then use a typewriter to preserve it. So I'm pretty certain that he would not have type dates in the past!

But, onto the telescope! As I said above, it is a 6" reflector. The optics are provided by UPCO, the same company that provided the mirror for the venerable Criterion RV-6. It is mounted to a GEM on a pier that seems to weigh 200lbs, but in fact only weighs 44 lbs.

The tiny finderscope and clock drive are present, but the clock drive isn't working, the wires are cut off short. Steve Forbes, of Trapezium Telescopes, tells me that this is an easy repair and he may even be able to get it to run on 12v for me.

There is also a box of eyepieces, including a 25mm Kellner and 2 Ramsden eyepieces with focal lengths of 1/2" and 1/4". All are 1.25" eyepieces! An achromatic barlow is also included but I'm not sure that all the spacers are intact. The lenses slide freely in the tube, that can't be right.

4 years later, a few days after January 17, 1967, another package from Edmund arrived at the Kazarian household. With $0.12 of postage on the box, 2 orthoscopic eyepieces showed up, one 6mm and one 12.5mm. I can only imagine a small envelope with an IOU it as a Christmas present.

The OTA is a white metal tube, with a 4 vane spider with a collimateable secondary! The focuser is pretty crude by today's standard with a T cut into the wall, presumable one bent the metal to hold the eyepiece "securely."

The OTA is held to a non-rotating cradle with 2 wing-nuts. There are 3 feet on the short pier, also held on by 3 wingnuts.

I am quite looking forward to seeing how the scope works. It isn't my first non-goto scope, the Swift is, but it will be the first non-goto scope that I'll use. The Swift stayed in the box since I got the Burgess soon after getting the Swift!

I'll keep you posted.